Maternal mortality rates were high in all countries during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Midwifery care, Medicaid expansion and paid leave could improve postpartum health in the U.S., a new report found. (Getty Images)
Birth outcomes in the U.S. are improving: The latest maternal mortality rate was 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022, down from 32.9 in 2021.
But the nation’s maternal death toll is still much higher than other countries, according to a recent report by The Commonwealth Fund.
Chile’s pregnancy-related death rate was 14.3 in 2022, followed by New Zealand with 13.6 and Korea with 8.8, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
No women died from child birth issues in Norway two years ago. Switzerland and Sweden had the lowest rates of maternal deaths that year, per the latest available OECD data. In Switzerland, the rate was 1.2 deaths per 100,000 live births and Sweden was 2.6
Maternal mortality rates increased during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — 2020 and 2021 — in most countries. Coronavirus-related complications may have played a role in the high death rates, the report found.
Even though fewer mothers are dying in the U.S. overall, Black women are still dying from childbirth at higher rates than other races. The Black maternal death rate in 2022 was 49.5.
“It is encouraging to see fewer maternal deaths in the U.S. in 2022; however the U.S. is still such an outlier, and the racial disparities are profoundly disturbing,” Dr. Laurie Zephyrin, the senior vice president of Advancing Health Equity at the Commonwealth Fund, said in a statement.
“It is time to center equity by diversifying the workforce and addressing head-on the racial inequities in health care quality and access,” said Zephyrin, who co-authored the report. Medicaid expansion, a stronger perinatal work force and paid maternity leave could improve birth outcomes, according to the report.
The report emphasized the amount of midwives in countries with lower maternal mortality rates. Midwifery care is popular in Chile, Sweden and Australia, where midwives vastly outnumber OB-GYNS.
“Outside the U.S., midwives are often considered the backbone of the reproductive health system,” the report’s authors wrote. But the country’s “health system does not systematically incorporate midwives into the provision of essential maternity care services, even though these clinicians could improve the quality of care and experience of care for women, particularly women of color.”
